How to be Dead
by TheSeventhSeal
Summary: Futurefic, SS- Summer believed that her husband had died. Seth's been given a second life to finish unfulfilled time. What will Seth do once he enters the world that believes he's gone?
1. The Unsaid Words

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-)****. Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love furry bears. Neon green is the new orange? Go Clippers?!**

**_Author's note_: **This is my first fan fiction published, I've kept a stock since my "Saved by the Bell Days" way back in Elementary School, but I've never published anything. Please read and review. I'd love to read any criticisms, don't be afraid to be negative, in fact, I'd encourage it. I'm going to try and update on a daily basis, I have a lot more of the story already written, but I want to release it daily to keep the suspense :-)…of course that would require readers, so please read if you can. Thanks again and cheerio.

**_Brief Story description: _Seth Cohen dies in a massive accident……But he is literally resurrected again. He doesn't know why, but the higher beings that be have given him a second body…a second chance. All he's told by the angels is that he's been given the opportunity because he died too soon with incomplete business. He didn't care what the business was, all he could think about was getting to his wife. But there are rules to be maintained…one of which was that Summer must never know who he really is. Will he break all the rules to see her?**

**_Yet another annoying Author's note: _**I always thought that good literature was modeled after greater literature, but given its own twist. I've modeled the story after _The Count of Monte Cristo_, a smidge from the movie _Ghost_, and of course, "the OC". This will be a dramedy…O.C style. Enjoy!

**CHAPTER 1 – The unsaid words**

_Her hands covered her mouth. Her vision didn't seem right. A surge of heat went through her body…………She turned to one of the bodies. She couldn't recognize her husband instantly because his face was covered in blood. Tears were rapidly falling down her face. She shoved her way through the paramedics and held her husband's head._

**March 15, 20-- 7 AM**

The couple walked around the house as they discussed something that seemed important. Summer was mainly the one walking around the house as she prepped for work. Seth, who was wearing a Berkeley shirt and boxers, was the one tailing her as he didn't have work till 10.

Summer seemed agitated and angry at Seth. Seth seemed agitated and angry at Summer.

They, unlike most couples, did not have many serious arguments.

Usually they fought over control of the radio (her definition of classic was Justin Timberlake and his was the emo-band Death Cab for Cutie), or what name they were going to give their child—he always insisted that it be Adam for a boy (after Adam West, star of the 60's comic book based tv show, "Batman") or June if it was a girl—she insisted that she'd stab a fork in his eye before she'd name her daughter June (she could imagine the mother/daughter fashion shows…Here comes Summer and June!..._Poor kid. It was daddy's bad idea, she saw herself explaining to their daughter._) and he insisted that he'd go on a sex strike if they named their son Enrique (after her favorite singer, Enrique Iglesias)—all arguments that they secretly adored about each other. Everyone around them—their family and their friends loved to be around their banter.

But recently, the banter had transformed into a series of painful and emotionally demanding arguments.

They were in their room now. They had gotten to a climax in their argument in the kitchen and both were silent now.

Summer turned her back on Seth and asked him to zip up her dress as she brushed her teeth with an electric toothbrush.

"God my toes feel bloated," Summer randomly commented, trying to perhaps settle the argument on a stalemate and at least leave for work with a civil attitude towards her husband.

Seth didn't say a word. He instead headed over to the kitchen to fix Summer's breakfast to go, since he knew that she was running late because of the argument.

Summer walked over to the sink and washed her mouth out. Things were definitely not going well. You could see water in her eyes, but she held it in. She was always good at that. Summer had a strong defense mechanism.

Late for work, she headed off to the front door. On a side table, she found a brown bag and a Styrofoam cup filled with cappuccino. She looked back to where she thought Seth was standing and smiled…but he was not there.

There was only silence.

Usually he was there ready to accompany her to her car. But this time, she was alone.

Because it was going to be a challenge carrying her purse, suitcase and brown bag of breakfast along with the cup of cappuccino to her car, she figured she'd open the door before anything.

She was startled.

Seth had been on the other side of the door waiting for her. Seth Cohen had always been crafty like that.

"Hello sunshine," he teased with a smile.

A part of her wanted to punch him in the face. A part of her wanted to kiss him. Before she could say, do, or think anything, he had come closer to her and met her head with his.

He then put his two hands on the side of her head, securing her. "Summer, before that rage blackout gets the best of you and you shove me to the ground, and as we both know, my body's sensitivity will send me flying to the neighbor's driveway instead of our own…" he kidded. And then he continued on a more serious tone, "I just wanted to say that in spite of all this…all this anger and disappointment and resentment….And though it seems like this one's taking longer to solve…I don't know what's going to happen, Summer…I really don't—"

"But?"

"But—" he then kissed her forehead slowly and meaningfully. "Deriving from the sage advice of my Bronx-born Jewish father and my ever so Waspy Christian mother, it's to never let an argument get the best of something so meaningful. The only thing that matters is us, Summer. Now with that in mind, there has never been a day, when I'm in town and on regular work hours, in which I hadn't walked you to your car. So in spite of the magnitude of this morning's quarrel, today will be no exception. So for the next minute, as I walk you to your car, let's remember those lovely days prior to this month."

Before Summer could refute, he hushed her gently with his hand and playfully bit her hand like an infant teething. She laughed. He put her purse on his shoulder and grabbed the brown bag. "Only a man who loves his wife very much would risk his manhood by carrying a Louis Vutton purse in broad daylight," he said as he smirked at her and held her hand, with their fingers locked together. She broke out into a smile. When the two had reached her car, he looked at her with concerned eyes.

They both didn't like what was going on between them, so they'd try to stop and act normally, yet they seemed to come back to the same point. But this time, at the car, it was different.

The most intense exchange of words between them had just happened and they both simultaneously had this sick feeling that only subsided at that moment, when he kissed her on the forehead. Seth's kiss was longer than a usual forehead kiss and with more passion. It was his way of telling the woman he loved that he loved her now and would love her forever.

"I want to figure this out," Seth explained.

"I do too," Summer replied.

"Then it's settled, three years into the game, we both know we can't think right on an empty stomach, especially me—and it's better to discuss things in public, so as to avoid you throwing a household item at me…shall it be DiPilla's at 6?"

Summer smiled. "It's a date."

Seth kissed her hand. "We'll figure this out…tonight if we have to…"

"Easier said than done, Cohen."

"I love you."

Summer stood tiptoed and leaned over to his ear, "I love you too Cohen," she whispered.

She then opened the door to her car. But before she entered her car, Seth pulled her back rapidly whilst turning her around and then kissed her. The kiss was long, passionate and smooth. The moment was so powerful that as they kissed, both almost wanted to cry. They weren't sure why, but they wanted to.

Seth then kissed her belly and made farting noises with it. "Good-bye baby June," he said with a smile.

"You mean, good-bye baby _Enrique_," she replied with a smirk as she stepped into the car and began pulling out of the driveway.

Seth stood at the driveway in his boxers, wearing his dorky gym socks. As she left, something came over Seth…something that made him beam. "Summer!" he screamed.

She was already backing out her car. Summer was a speed demon, so in a matter of seconds she was already out on the street. She rolled down her windows as she backed it out trying to hear what he was saying. "What?" she asked, struggling to hear, as their neighbor's gardeners started trimming and mowing the lawns. A car started honking at Summer to hurry up and stop blocking the road.

"I—" he saw that she was squinting her eyes, signifying that she couldn't hear him, so instead she was attempting to read his lips.

"Love—Dinner—Tell you—at dinner!" was what Summer heard. So she gave him a last wave and headed for work.

**March 15, 20-- ****5:15 PM******

_Later that afternoon…_

Seth drove down the highway in his vintage dark blue Mustang. He called it _vintage_. Summer called it _old_.

Fearing that his dark frizzy/wavy/curly hair, affectionately called the Jewfro, would over-frizz out, he turned off the AC and rolled down the window. He then picked up his cell phone and dialed some numbers as he drove.

"Hello?"

"Hi yes," replied Seth in a British accent. "I was wondering whether I could speak with Mr. Atwood, I'm one of his clients."

"Certainly," the voice of an elderly woman replied. "Who may I ask is speaking?"

"Sir Bigtoole. Ura Bigtoole," Seth said in his most serious voice.

"Hold on one second please." Over the phone Seth heard the elderly woman yell, "Mr. Atwood…Sir Ura Bigtoole!.........Sir Ura Bigtoole on line one!" After that, Seth hung up and laughed. He knew Ryan would come back with some better prank later in the week. Even though they were both 25, they at times retreated to their 17-year-old boyish ways.

After all the thinking that had gone on in his head, Seth needed that.

He then looked intensely at the road. He thought about the days when he and Summer would spend a good hour and just crank call Ryan at the PD's office. He smiled.

Seth's car phone rang. He struggled to reach it. _I knew I shouldn't have let Summer talk me into getting a car phone. It's a vintage mustang dammit. VINTAGE. _He thought as he reached for the phone. He took his eyes off the road for precisely two seconds.

His next vision only lasted for a brief second.

And then it was darkness.

**March 15, 20-- ****5:30 PM******

The Pacific Coast Highway had more traffic than the usual. For the most part, Summer was able to drive at a fast pace down the highway, but suddenly it became immensely congested…perhaps because of a new accident. In fact, it was so immensely congested that Summer's car only moved at a pace of 5 miles per hour.

It was driving her insane. She was at least glad that DiPilla's was only three more miles away.

Her cell phone rang. "Hello?" she answered.

It was Marissa Cooper, her best friend and confidant since childhood. She had been calling Summer for the past hour. "Okay Sum, I think I'm going to cry." _Figures. _Summer thought.

"Listen Coop…I'll be blunt, you know me…I can't help it."

"Oh-kay," Marissa said on the other end, with tears flowing profusely.

"………It's only a flat tire, you can get out of this jam tear free, just call Triple A."

"But I'm so…so alone……" Marissa exclaimed. _Marissa's on her period. Marissa's on her period. Marissa's on her period. _Summer reminded herself.

Typically, Summer was always great at comforting her melodramatic friend, who never quite reacted well to bad news, even if it was just about a silly flat tire. But it was just not a great day, especially amidst all the traffic and Seth. But Summer sucked it in because Marissa needed her, so she was going to be there—even if it was just a damn flat tire.

As she comforted Marissa and told her to dial a car towing company, she started to see from afar the accident scene. Although they were still little dots, Summer could see that it was something big, as there were tons of bright shining lights from a fire and from the ambulances to fire engines to the police officers that were trying to direct the traffic. _God, does everyone have to slow down and look at the crash site? It's like none of our business. _She thought.__

Impatient and pissed off, she overlooked the scene when it was her car's turn to get a good sight of it. She rolled her windows up so she couldn't smell the smoke from the blaze. "This traffic is killer Coop, it looks pretty terrible. See? Imagine if you were them Coop…instead you've been blessed with a flat tire—" The phone slipped from Summer's fingers. She became so pestered with searching for the phone that she didn't even recognize that she too was slowing down traffic by stopping.

A police officer knocked on her window.

"Crap." Summer rolled down her window.

"Keep movin' on there ma'am," the officer ordered.

"Yes officer, sorry officer, I was just looking—" she stopped herself. She had to think about whether or not it was illegal to drive with cell phones in California. _I guess Coop will have to wait a few minutes. Hopefully she'll be okay. Sorry Coop. _She thought to herself_._ Her car started to move. By then, the accident was too visible for her to not glimpse at it at all.

And when she did…

Her heart stopped.

Everything from that point on would be a blur in Summer's eyes.

_Summer had pulled over. She'd spot that dark blue mustang anywhere. As she hurriedly got out of the car, thinking a million thoughts, she tried to assure herself that it was just an overreaction. She'd done it once before when firefighters were near her neighborhood. She thought that Seth had fallen asleep again and left the coffee pot on, but this time, without her to turn it off. It turned out to be a bunch of neighborhood kids burning newspapers._

_A white convertible Lexus, a dark blue mustang and a black SUV had crashed into each other. The dark blue mustang, which seemed to have been caught in the middle, had flipped over into the other lane. Meanwhile, the white Lexus was burning, but the firefighters extinguished it. The black SUV was turned to the side. A heavy impact must have occurred._

_The police officers instinctively thought that she was some nutty spectator or some local journalist trying to catch the latest buzz and held her back. "Ma'am this is for your own safety, you are not allowed near the scene, now get back into your car and join traffic, NOW."_

_Summer tried to get a good look at who was going into the ambulance. There were two body bags. Outside, there was a crowd of paramedics that surrounded two pairs of feet, still reviving them. Summer couldn't see. She tried to see if the car was really Seth's. She couldn't fathom it. She didn't want to. _

_"My husband!" was all that she could clearly scream to the officer's face. Rage blackouts. She couldn't see the cars too well. She refused to believe that it was her Seth's._

_She shoved the officer's arms out of the way and maneuvered her way through. She sprinted toward where the paramedics were as the officer chased her. Both faces were bloody and covered with every life sustaining apparatus there was. She turned her head quickly to the car and saw that at the back, was a small plastic toy horse._

_It was Seth's childhood companion that he carried everywhere for good luck._

_She knew._

_Happening in what seemed like slow motion…_

_Her hands covered her mouth. Her vision didn't seem right. A surge of heat went through her body…………She turned to one of the bodies. She couldn't recognize her husband instantly because his face was covered in blood. Tears were rapidly falling down her face. She shoved her way through the paramedics and held her husband's head._


	2. Luke's Big Gay Dad?

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love furry bears. Neon green is the new orange? Go Clippers?!**

**CHAPTER 2 – Luke's Big Gay Dad?******

_Well that was one hell of a dream, Seth thought as he woke up. Far too real. God if I open my eyes, that means I'm gonna have to get up and take the trash out…it's Tuesday. _

_—My ass itches. It's going to be one of those days……Did I over sleep? Dammit, that means I didn't tape "Everwood" for Summer. She's gonna open a can of whoop-ass. Hmmm…maybe that'll help my itchy ass? My eyes are too comfortable to open them. Think of happy thoughts, think of happy thoughts…………………PUDDING. SUMMER and PUDDING. SUMMER rolling around in PUDDING…………CAPTAIN OATS FLYING………CAPTAIN OATS FLYING OVER BUCKET OF PUDDING WITH SUMMER ROLLING AROUND IT._

"Seth Cohen?" a man's voice inquired.

_That's not Summer…oh my god, maybe I got so plastered and maybe I went to some prison and picked up some guy and had some really minty moment with him…we're all entitled to one really really really bad lapse in judgement…never did explore in college…oh my god…no, I'm incapable of that…maybe chest-shaving Luke, as he does have a big gay dad as his role model…but not Seth Cohen…oh no no no…not me. _

_Chalk full of quiet now. Just open your eyes so you can figure out who that man is and why the voice is soothingly UNfamiliar._

Seth opened his left eye to peak and then jumped up startled. "Um…hi," Seth greeted, attempting to be calm. "And if you don't mind my asking…who the hell are you? And why are you in my hou—" Seth stopped before he could say house. He got up out of the bed. It was not his home.

The short man smiled, "Actually, you're in _my_ house."

Seth bounced up at this. He looked around in what looked like a hospital room. All the materials that belonged in a hospital were situated where they would be situated—except that the building was far too quiet to be a hospital. "Are you…a doctor?"

The short man who wore a Clippers jersey with a pair of tight jeans and 90's style basketball sneakers laughed. "Call me doctor, call me grandpa, whatever soothes your desires."

Seth felt his body. Everything seemed fine. "So was I…"

"Injured?" the man responded.

"Yeah…"

"You could say that, but you're healed now."

"Does my wife know I'm here? My family?"

The man continued to smile. Seth was starting to get irritated with the man's constant smile. "The name's Caulfield…George Caulfield," he said as he stuck out his hand. Seth shook it. "Come on, let's walk…it's better to explain things while doing something physical." _Physical?__ I am not Luke's big gay dad. I am not Luke's big gay dad._ Seth thought. "You're far from being Luke's big gay dad. You sneaky heterosexual fox you," the man responded with a chuckle.

Seth stopped, wondered how the man knew what he thought, shrugged it off and then continued. He didn't care, he was anxious to find his wife. "What kind of a hospital is this?"

"This is St. Jude's hospital in Malibu. You were airlifted here a couple of days ago."

"Why is it so empty?" Seth questioned. The front desk and lobbies were empty. The quaint hospital was far too quaint. "Jesus, who died?" Seth commented playfully on the desolate building. Finally Seth saw two people coming from downstairs. It was another patient and another person. Caulfield waved at the other person walking with the patient.

Caulfield, a short man who looked like he was in his forties, smiled at Seth again. "No, I don't have a smiling issue," Caulfield answered, reading Seth's head. "Some people think I do, but I don't."

"Fantastic," Seth replied, ready to leave the weird man. He then snapped his two fingers together. "Listen, do you know where my wife is?"

"She's here, but you won't see her."

"Why can't I see her?"

Caulfield stopped. His smile had stopped. He looked like he had something grave he wanted to explain to Seth.

Seth looked at him and spoke slowly and calmly, "Mr. Caulfield, sir, I would like to see my wife, her name is Summer Cohen. Maybe she's listed under Summer Roberts-Cohen? She kept her last name for legal documents and hyphenated it with mine as an homage to her dad, being the only child that could bear the Roberts' name, since she had no brothers or sisters. You look like an extremely helpful man, _very_ Mr. Rogers-like in a 90's outdated thuggish way, so now if you can just turn me to the proper direction, I'll walk myself there."

"I was never good at this stuff, never figured out why he put me in this job," Caulfield said. Although it seemed like he was saying it to himself more so than he was saying it to Seth. Caulfield looked up and closed his eyes, and shook all of his body for a few seconds. "She's now in the room you woke up in."

Seth rushed back to the room with a smile in his face expecting to see her there, standing as beautifully as he remembered her when she left…sporting her beautiful mischievous smile…but she wasn't there. Seth turned around and found Caulfield immediately behind him. Seth felt something displaced in his heart. "I said you won't see her not as an order, but as a truth," Caulfield began to explain. "You are in the same place as her…in this room…just in a different world."

_Summer's face looked like all the life in her was taken away. She wore no make-up and she didn't fix her hair. Her eyes had eyebags and her skin was paler than usual…an indication that she had been up crying. She touched the sheets that her husband had laid in. She stayed strong, she didn't breakdown as much around people…she kept this strong persona around people. But when she was alone, it struck a profound scar in her._

_"Mrs. Cohen?" the nurse repeated._

_Summer hadn't heard her first call. Summer hadn't heard much the past few days. "Yes?" Summer finally responded._

_"These were just the clothes that Mr. Cohen came in. The hospital would have sent it to your house, but Doctor Fairchild wanted you to sign papers here and suggested that I give these to you in person because of patient-confidentiality laws, I'm terribly sorry you had to go through such trouble to get these," the kind nurse explained as she handed her Seth's clothes. It looked like the kind nurse had washed his clothing numerous times, just to make sure Summer wouldn't see the blood that had been all over them. "I'm being paged right now, is there anything else you need there darling?"_

_"No, thank you. I was wondering if it was alright for me to stay here for a few minutes?"_

_"Oh no problem darling, no problem at all."___

_Summer sat there. She thought that she'd get his things and swiftly exit, but something kept her there. It was this feeling inside, this magnetic attraction that made her stay for a little bit. She touched her belly for a few seconds and closed her eyes. She then hid her face in her hands and cried._

"Different world? What? Like Siberia?" Seth asked Caulfield.

"Farther yet closer."

Seth looked at him, "Do you really expect me to believe this?" But something in Seth did believe a part of it. Something felt awkward in him. His body was lighter, his senses seemed stronger.

"You died Seth…three days ago to be exact. It took that long for your unconscious soul to get here."

Seth stopped and laughed. "Wait, Ryan put you up to this didn't he?" Seth started to clap. "Way to go Ryan, come out with the cameras…it's great, you're a natural. You got me. You're the cross breed of Billy Bob and Ashton Kutcher. Brilliant Ryan, bravo!"

"I know you feel that what I'm saying is true, even if you say you don't believe it. So I'll just continue, if one stays in this plane for too long, you become a perpetual wanderer…and frankly, no one wants to be that." Caulfield continued to explain bluntly. "You died three days ago, in a car accident, on your way to meet Summer for dinner. A white Lexus in front of you immediately braked…traveling at 80 miles per hour, your impact was critical. Your car flipped over as the black car in back of you also reacted to the impact and smashed your car. You were taken to the Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital where you were then airlifted to St. Jude's Hospital, where a specialist could treat your severe head injury. It was a success and it bought you five hours."

Seth's eyes were watery. All it took was the face Seth had on to convey the pain of trying to accept it. Caulfield looked at him and empathized with Seth's pain, but he continued, "You fought well. But your body had lost too much blood to the extent where you were internally bleeding. A blood transfusion wouldn't have mattered at that point. You became comatose and shortly after—"

Seth shook his head, his eyes still watery. He clenched his fist and finished Caulfield's sentence, "I died."

"I'd try to explain it, but I feel like you believe your state."

"I don't understand it, but I do feel something." Seth sat down and rubbed his head with his hand. He sat there silent for a long while, just thinking by himself. Caulfield stood by the door, waiting for Seth. "So what happens to me now? Is this—"

"The afterlife?" replied Caulfield. "Far from it. It's middle ground between your world and mine." Caulfield signaled Seth to follow him. The two started heading out of the hospital. "Usually," Caulfield began to explain, "one goes straight up to see 'the man'. Their souls are then recycled for rebirth, then they live life and then they die and the process starts all over again."

"So it's kind of like the Buddhist afterlife right?" Seth questioned, still trying to grasp that he's dead. It was difficult to process, so he held back the pain of never seeing his wife, his unborn child and his family and friends ever again.

"Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, Muslim way, everyone on Earth loves to label that which is unfathomable. What is up there can be described in a multitude of ways. A Christian goes up there and sees it as heaven. Who's to say that it isn't? An atheist goes up there and claims it to be a second existence…a second earth. Who's to say that it isn't?" Caulfield continued. "One day, the earth just might be too overpopulated and people might have to stay up there, but for now, we recycle everyone, and allow the population on earth to continuously grow and live life."

"So am I not being reborn into another person?"

"Well, that's where my job comes in…people who get stuck here are special cases."

"Special cases?" Seth inquired.

"Those who end up here have become exceptions to the process because of their special circumstances. That being that they have left too soon and have unfulfilled time back on earth."

"Unfulfilled time?" Seth was confused. "That's a lot of people when they die."

"Yes, and they all come back to this world…they're death was untimely. Their time had been shortened, which causes a problem in the system. You see, most people, whether it be dying of old age, or getting shot at 22, were meant to live up to that point and their souls accept it and continue on up there. They are able to be reborn with a clear mind. The longer you've been recycled, the smarter you are, the more deja vous and correct first instincts you have…but that's a whole different story. But for those with unfinished business…history shows that they grow up to be disturbed individuals…serial killers…sociopaths…etc. because they feel inadequate and trapped in a place they shouldn't be at. The souls that don't accept their death and feel like they still need time on earth for some reason, come here. 'The man' looks over it, sees whether it'd disturb his or her next lifetime and then allows them to go back."

Seth looked at Caulfield confused again. "So what are you saying that I do exactly?"

"Well Jesus and Moses are on your side. They're going to send you back and then when your soul feels its time, will die and head off to meet 'the man' like everybody else."

"And when will that be?"

"No date. Life is just that…random, no one has a date. Maybe after your second day back, you die. Maybe on your 70th birthday, you die," Caulfield explained. The two were now outside by the hospital pool. "I know it's all a bit surreal, most people do not experience this after death—to have to understand his own extinction and then the concept of his revival."

Seth was barely processing the concept of his death and now he had to process this. "Wait, I mean how do I get back? Do I jump back from my burial ground?"

Caulfield laughed. "Well do you remember that one Chris Rock movie, where he takes over an old white man's body?"

"Yeah."

"Well not that." Caulfield cracked himself up sometimes and ONLY himself. "If we allowed you to go back to your regular body, the difficulty of establishing communication with your loved ones and living a normal life with them would be virtually impossible. I mean think of it…you come back as your physical self and what is Summer going to do? Quit her job and run away with you without telling anyone else a single word?"

"Yes," Seth replied.

"Problem is, if the thousands of souls that do get sent back do that, then it'd be chaos. Everyone would know about the process of life and death. Religions would falter. Think about how much the world would change, knowing that they could relive life again? So no, not a possibility, plus, you're body's not going to buried, it's going to be burned. And we also do not sent you back to replace another living person's body. Also chaos…people spontaneously changing as another soul lives in them. Utter chaos."

"So then…"

"So then you are sent to someone down there, who works for 'the man' up there. There are tons of us workers/angels/pimps, whatever you'd like to call us, located anywhere and everywhere. They look out and make sure things remain peaceful. They also help you transfer to a body. These bodies are just a few days dead…still fresh…belonging to 'unknowns'…people who chose to live life without records, without families…without a trace…they run away from home and stay away. Now feel blessed that we have terrific technology. These bodies are reengineered…blah blah blah, I can explain it to you but it'd just be too long. You'll meet Charlie down there and he'll show you the ropes."

"Charlie?"

"Yes, Charlie. What are you, a parrot?" With that, Caulfield shoved Seth into the pool.

And it was darkness for Seth Cohen again.


	3. Iris

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love furry bears. Neon green is the new orange? Go Clippers?!**

**CHAPTER 3 – Iris**

Seth jumped up and gasped. He took in a large gasp of air and began breathing rapidly. He was sweating. At first, it was really hard for him to open his eyes, as if he hadn't done it in such a long time.

A chubby brown man around in his late 30's, who looked very much like a hustler in New York chuckled. The lab coat he wore changed all that of course. "One hell of a ride eh?" he said in a thick British accent. "Come on, you smell like a dead man," he joked as he helped the naked Seth get up. He led Seth to the shower. "Go in there and bathe and then we'll talk. There are some clothes by the shower rack."

The area they were in was metallic, much like a coroner's office.

As Seth took a shower he wondered. _I feel like me. The hair feels a bit like the jewfro. Maybe I didn't change after all and this is all still one bad dream._

Seth stepped out of the shower and changed into jeans, a black shirt and an old black and gray hooded jacket. He then stepped outside into the main area, where Charlie waited for him. "You were 25 when you died, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Congrats, you're still 25."

Seth looked around everywhere. "How long has time passed?"

"6 days since your death. We're in a room hidden within a meat packing factory in the San Fernando Valley, about an hour from your home," Charlie explained. _How glamorous._ Seth thought.

He handed Seth a mirror and Seth screamed as he saw his reflection. He felt his new face.

Seth's face was no longer his. He didn't think it was possible, but it was no longer his. But it did still resemble him. Seth still had his dark curly hair and he was still a very handsome young man. But he couldn't believe it. He felt his face again.

"It was the closest face I could find, pretty good if you ask me, eh?" Charlie explained. He then led Seth outside.

The day was bright. It was as though Seth hadn't seen it in a long while either.

Seth and Charlie rode a bus back to Orange County. Seth's heart couldn't stop pounding and his mind flew a million different ways. He would give anything to hold Summer's hand again. He would give anything to grow old with her. But he was physically a different man, how could he ever get Summer to believe that it was really him? Could he just tell her?

"Why are we going back there?" Seth asked.

"Don't you want to go home and see your wife?" Charlie replied.

"Well I'm not exactly me, am I? So I don't think she'd be particularly receptive or welcoming," Seth replied.

Charlie laughed. "Life's been given back to you, for SOME reason. I am not sure what, or why, but it is. If I were you, I'd take it, see your wife, charm the shit out of her, marry her in two years and live life again. The only difference would be that she'd think you were someone else."

"I can't just enter in her life again. I—her husband, just died in her eyes. She's got a hell of a lot more to deal with than go out there and date."

"Well sweep her off her feet then," Charlie responded. "Look, if there is one thing I've learned in this job, it is that life is capricious…you are making sweet love one day and dead the next. You've been given a second chance to go back and do whatever it is that your unconscious soul wants you to do…SEIZE it. Only strong souls get to do that."

Seth thought about this for a moment.

"By the way, you have one very important rule you must abide by. The only rule is that this concept of a second life, _cannot_ be publicly known. It'd be a large mess now wouldn't it? Chaos…chaos…chaos. It is why there are so many of us angels down here, to watch over you and make sure that doesn't happen." Charlie explained in his quirky Londoner cockney accent. "I mean you can tell people, but telling people leads to trouble. When it does lead to trouble, we have to cover your ass. We hate doing that. So do us the favor and don't tell anyone. I mean you can still be around your family, try to resolve whatever it is by other means, you're just a stranger to them though."

"What happens if I do tell them?"

"Nothing. It's when you do and it gets out that we'll revoke your soul and recycle it anyway, resolved or unresolved business."

"Isn't that a bit inhumane?"

"I didn't decide the rules kid, sorry. 'The man' has to balance so many worlds, it isn't easy on him to set up consequences like that either," Charlie tried to explain. Seth nodded. "Now according to the paper, your ceremony will be open and set at the Harbor."

She had never felt pain so sharp and overwhelming as she had for the past few days. The young, dark-haired beautiful woman silently wept in her room. Even in a plain black dress, she was still just as striking. Her left hand covered her mouth and a part of her face, as many people instinctively did when they cried, but Summer did it to mute the volume of her crying.

There was a knock on her door. In a flash, Summer turned away. Everyone knew the sorrow she was going through, but Summer always tried to remain sturdy, so as to keep everyone else from falling apart.

Kirsten entered the room. "Hi Summer," she greeted in a trembling near whisper. That was how Kirsten had spoken now. She too, like her daughter-in-law had shown a strong, yet pained stance in public…but in private, she was barely staying afloat. Seth was the light of her life. Sandy was the love of her life. And Ryan had been the cherry on top to their family. But Seth…Seth was her life.

From the day she went through such a difficult labor with Seth at 22, which rendered her unable to bear anymore children, she never had envisioned outliving her lively son. She didn't care that she almost died when she gave birth to Seth, all she knew was all the unconditional love she had for the little infant with a hint of dimples that she had just barely met. She would guard him for the rest of her life.

Kirsten closed up her fist and tried to control her emotions. "We're going to leave for the Harbor now," Kirsten explained.

Summer got up. She didn't want to speak, because she knew that if she did, everything that she kept composed would just shatter. But it couldn't be helped, before they both knew it, Summer was hugging Kirsten tightly, with tears falling down both their eyes.

Seth Cohen's funeral was to be set at sea. Summer wouldn't have had it any other way. The sea that he had loved so much was going to be his home now.

Seth's wake was attended by everyone who knew Seth, which was by the hundreds. The entire church was packed to the masses. But the Cohens opted for the funeral to be a private ceremony.

On the large white boat were about twenty people. Marissa stood by her fiancé, Ryan, who looked extremely damaged. Seth was his brother and best friend. He would shine up a moment, no matter how bad a situation was.

Sandy Cohen stood there with an angry and broken look on his face. He wished for anything in the world that he could have done something that could have saved his son somehow. He somehow felt that he had failed as a father for not protecting him.

Kirsten felt worse. She held Sandy's hand tightly as the Rabi and Pastor both said their brief speeches.

Of all of them though, it had been Summer who was the wreck. Summer always tried to act as the lifesaving device for everybody else drowning in sorrow, but Summer couldn't any more.

Seth and Charlie rented a boat to go and see the ceremony, but maintained a safe distance from the large sail boat that contained all of Seth's loved ones.

He stood there silent, watching his family go through so much anguish.

Summer hesitantly threw her husband's ashes to the sea. She stood back, watching it spread to sea. She put her hand on her stomach, assuring their unborn child that mommy was going to do everything in her power to make sure that he or she remembers daddy well.

"Let's go," Seth told Charlie. He didn't want to see any more. But before Charlie could get the boat moving, Seth saw Summer break down.

From that point on, he convinced himself that he couldn't enter her life again, even if he was a stranger to her. His life could be taken again at any time. For all he knew, his purpose of coming back had already been served when he saw his own burial and at any time, could be dead. He couldn't put his family through that again. Even if he was given five more years of life instead of five months, he couldn't let his child go through the feeling of losing a parent.

"I'm going to leave," he told Charlie as they both stepped off the boat.

"Leave where?"

"I'm not sure…I've always wanted to do the Jack Kerouac thing and do a pancake tour of America…maybe hit up London after—Finland—Sweden—some really nifty African village where all the women are topless? All the way up until I die."

"I thought—"

"—I can't," Seth finished, looking at Charlie with pained eyes. Charlie saw it and understood. Seth couldn't stay.

"What if your purpose was to be in Orange County?"

"Then I guess I shall live life for a long time without purpose."

Charlie nodded. "How will you survive? You have nothing but the clothes on your back – even those aren't yours."

"Maybe I'll try my luck in Vegas?"

Charlie stuck out his hand for a handshake, "Keep the clothes." Seth shook his hand and thanked him. He then opened up his hand and saw a wad of cash in his hand.

"That's $1,000. Keep that too," Charlie explained.

Seth couldn't take it. Charlie laughed, "Take it, it's just my bar mitzvah money," he joked.

With that, Seth walked away towards the vacant taxis. He looked back and waved to Charlie one last time, and then looked to where Summer's boat was. It was going to be one hell of a journey for both Seth and Summer.

**Goo**** Goo Dolls – "Iris"**

And I'd give up forever to touch you  
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow  
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be  
And I don't want to go home right now  
  
And all I can taste is this moment  
And all I can breathe is your life  
'Cause sooner or later it's over  
I just don't want to miss you tonight  
  
And I don't want the world to see me  
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
When everything's made to be broken  
I just want you to know who I am


	4. Their Baby

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love pink jelly beans. Mmmmm. Go Northwestern Wildcats!?**

**_Author's Note to Readers/Reviewers: _**First and foremost, thank you for all the reviews, as long as just one of you keeps on reading, I will always update/write more to this story. It really feels cool to know that people took the time out in their day to read your stuff…and then to have them actually like it…TIMES TEN to the cool feeling. Alright, 'nuff with the mushyness, keep on doing what you guys do best…

**_Author's Note on the Story: _**Originally, this was going to be Chapter 5, but I decided to bump the chapter up because I was happy with the chapter. Also I figured I'd put in more of an action-driven chapter since you guys got a lot of emotionally-driven stuff the past three chapters, tell me what you think. Please read and review. Thanks and cheerio.

**_Extra Stuff:_** I heart visuals, so on geocities, I've uploaded a picture that compares what I think the resurrected Seth Cohen would look like, in comparison of course to the original Seth Cohen. I wanted the character to look A LOT like Seth Cohen, with only a smidge of variation and this is what I envisioned. Do you guys have any suggestions as to any other pictures that you'd think Seth would look like? Type in GEOCITIES.C0M and then type the forward slash "/" and after, type in "theseventhseal86" (I had trouble writing www stuff on html format, somehow you can't, so I had to write it like above)

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**Chapter 4 – Their baby**

The weather was atypical for California. It was an extremely gray October day, a bit like one of those days when one would look up and wonder when the rain would come out, and the rain would tease you with sprinkles and then stop.

The little boy who wore tiny red converses with his school uniform, stood in front of the school, patiently waiting for his mom and aunt to pick him up.

At about 6 years old, Adam was more precocious than any of his other classmates. He was a shy boy, but he was also the one behind all the mischief.

He was a spitting image of his father. He had dark, semi-curly hair that would also frizz out with a bad A/C and with the dimples he had, he could charm his way with anything.

While he was waiting, he saw his classmates leave with their nannies. Not a single one wanted to greet him "hello".

You could see that there was a bit of sadness in Adam's eyes, especially when Audrey passed by.

In preschool, the timid boy had declared his intentions of marrying Audrey out loud in the middle of class randomly one day. The class laughed and Audrey turned ten shades of red. She never forgave him for that day.

Adam shook his head and made another joke. The little boy's humor was what kept him okay. He told the joke to the little four-year-old girl with pigtails right next to him. She laughed and laughed. Anything Adam did was funny to Jamie.

He started to show Jamie a magic trick with a little red ball. "Now Jamie, close your eyes and I'm gonna make the ball disappear," Adam requested. He was a horrible magician.

"Okay!" the little girl enthusiastically replied, giggling. She then closed and covered her eyes. Adam threw the red ball across the bushes.

"Okay, open them," the little boy said with a laugh. He tried to contain himself.

"Wow!" the little girl said. Of course, she was four and would be fascinated with a plastic fork if it came across her.

Adam retrieved the ball and started up the trick again, but dropped the ball after a tall man with a white coat bumped into Adam.

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Summer and Marissa had to walk two blocks to pick up Jamie and Adam as a result of a horrible parking lot at Dalton Grammar School. Although the private school was one of the top elementary schools in the nation, it was an old area meant for people with horse carriages not vehicles, when it had been built.

"God Coop, I say next PTA meeting we bitch until we get Principal Morrissey to build another damn lot," Summer commented.

"You tried that last time, remember?"

"Yeah and with absolutely no success, but this time, I say we dress all in black, wear gym socks with holes on our heads, meet her at the parking lot after the PTA meeting and threaten the woman with Styrofoam baseball bats…she totally won't know the difference in the dark," Summer concocted.

"Okay, you do that Sum, and I'll stand, look pretty and watch while drinking some latte," replied Marissa with a smirk.

"I liked it better when you were a robot," Summer joked.

"Me too."

About a block away, they saw their children standing by the school, with Adam showing Jamie his usual "disappearing" ball trick. But before Summer could yell out for Adam, she saw him drop his ball and run across the street for it.

She also saw what Adam couldn't—a light white sports car going way past the legal speed limit of 25 mph.

"ADAAAAM!"


	5. The Entrance

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. Yvan Eht Nioj. ;-) I like donuts.**

**_Author's Note: _**Being a fan of fan fics, I know how killer it is to have to wait for a chapter, when at times, you want to know what's happened. So if any of you are like that, I've saved you the trouble and uploaded the next chapter too. :-) This was also supposed to be a chapter later, but since the chapter before it got bumped, this too got bumped as well. Am I doing the wrong thing by not leaving Chapter 4 by itself and allowing the audience to have a cliffhanger? Eh…who knows? Enjoy and cheerio!

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**CHAPTER 5 – The Entrance**

All Adam could remember was him chasing the red ball and some sort of force yanking him back.

A man with a long, dark coat had pulled him back. "Are you okay?" the man asked concerned.

Adam nodded.

"Are you sure?" he questioned again. Adam nodded with a smile. The man smiled. "Gambit was always my favorite out of the X-Men," the man commented as he pointed on Adam's lunchbox and walked away.

Summer had sprinted over there, but by the time she did get there, which was a matter of seconds, the man had gotten in to a dark Lincoln and left.

"Are you alright baby?" Summer inquired as she checked every inch of her son as she scooped him up and kissed him several times.

"Well mommy, my arm kind of hurts," Adam commented.

"What?!? Don't move it, we're taking you the emergency room. Marissa get the car while I call 911," Summer said in a panic.

Adam laughed, "Just kidding mom!"

Summer squeezed him tight. She was more visibly more shaken than her son was. "Don't do that to mommy. Do you remember what happens to mommy?"

Adam nodded whimsically, "Yup yup. Rage blackouts."

"Exactly, she gets her rage blackouts whenever she hears any danger coming to you, is that understood Adam?" Summer asked with a relieved smile.

"Yup mom," he replied as he kissed her forehead. "I'm okay. I don't even remember what happened. I just remembered meeting the man."

"Did you get his name, so your mom could thank him?" Marissa asked as she carried Jamie in her arms. Jamie hadn't noticed the event at all, she had been too busy covering her eyes, waiting for the ball to disappear.

"Nope. He just asked if I was okay and that he liked Gambit too. He was tall Aunt Coop, and he was really nice, and he kind of looked like daddy," Adam rambled.

All of them started to walk towards the car. Marissa continued, trying to guess which parent it was, "Well the only one that looks like Tom is Paul Schneider."

Adam tugged on Marissa's shirt. "No no, not that dad…I mean daddy in the pictures and videos." Marissa looked at Summer.

Summer's heart had stopped. She had seen the man's back, but that was it. It was a silly flashback. She had them every time she met any man remotely like Seth. But no one was ever near Seth, he was irreplaceable.

Summer was able to function and be normal again because of her son, but no matter how much she tried, there was always a strong chord that struck in her whenever Seth was mentioned. She'd try to move on from the thought a few seconds later, but it was still so painful for her. Seth...

"Was he a daddy of someone from your class?" Summer asked, shrugging all irrational thoughts and switching back to normal mode.

"I don't think so," he replied, scratching his head.

"Well this has been a funny afternoon, kid, how about we go sailing with Jamie and Aunt Marissa?" Summer proposed. She had taken up sailing after her husband's death, one of the many things she did to get back on the ball.

"Okay!" Adam replied.

Summer glimpsed back one more time, wondering who the man was. 


	6. The Crowe

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love furry Vikings. Burn dead kittens?**

**_Author's Note: _**Thanks again for all the kind reviews, it's what keeps a writer going.

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**Chapter 6 – The Crowe**

The first thing everyone saw was an extremely shiny black shoe stepping out of the dark private car. The movement was then followed by the stranger stepping out of the car. The fairly tall man gave a smile that immediately won over the ten people that had been sent by the Newport Group to meet him in front of his new residence.

He went beyond the stereotype of the tall, handsome, dark maned business man—he was absolutely debonair. His name was Aidan Crowe. To the ten people that met him, and to the rest of the people in the community of Newport Beach, Aidan Crowe, according to _The Riviera_, Newport Beach's choice gossip magazine, was an East Coaster, heir to William James Crowe's fortunes, and that he was ready to expand his empire in Newport Beach.

The gossipers of the community felt elite, knowing a fair amount of knowledge about the man who was in his early thirties, and probably now Newport's most eligible bachelor. They knew that Aidan was the child of Vanessa Quinn, a past love of William's, but due to social circumstances, he being next in line to run the Crowe business, and she without any social standing, were permanently separated. Vanessa left for Africa and was never to meet William again. They also knew that she had passed away a decade ago. Two years ago, a childless William discovered that Vanessa had one child, and had met up with Aidan, and that regardless of whether Aidan was his or not, had adopted him legally and had made him heir to the Crowe fortune, which was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The gossipers indeed felt elite. However, what they did not know was that Aidan Crowe had never really existed…and that before the name Aidan Crowe, this particularly dashing man had lived by another name, a name called Seth Cohen.

Tom Reilly, a dirty-blond haired man in his mid-thirties a little shorter than Seth greeted him. "Hello Mr. Crowe…Tom Reilly, owner of the Newport Group," he introduced as he stuck out his hand for Seth to shake. Tom was a bit muscular and tanned, he embodied the Newport Beach body.

"Hello," Seth greeted back with a small smile.

"The Newport Group just wanted to greet the newest member of the community to one of the largest estates in the city…if not the largest," Tom explained in a sort of fake, salesman like voice.

Seth stood there in his black Armani suit and looked at his mansion. The mansion was unimaginably vast in every proportion. The color of it was light beige and it resembled a large Victorian house. It looked romantic with its large iron gates and enormous courtyard. The ivy was wrapped around the walls. And the best part of the mansion was that on the other side of it…was the ocean. "Only a man like you could get away with an east coast like castle in the middle of Southern California," Tom commented.

Seth looked at him and gave off another smile. "I'll take that as a compliment, instead of as an attempt to kiss ass," Seth commented with a grin. Tom's look changed—worried that he had offended his most powerful buyer yet. Seth gave a smirk, "Kidding." Seth wasn't, but he had to control himself.

Tom laughed out loud—perhaps louder than how one should, considering the joke wasn't all that funny. The rest of his workers followed. "Shall we take you around?" Tom offered.

"Ah…actually I think I'm going to rest for a bit. I suffer from a controlled version of narcolepsy," Seth commented. Tom laughed again.

"It's been a long plane ride, I completely understand," Tom replied. "Well hey, tonight's Halloween and my wife Summer is throwing a party at our house, for my kid's sake. You know these days, with all the drugged up candy, so instead she's holding something for the kids in the backyard…haunted mansion, the works. I tell you, she spoils our kid rotten," Tom began to explain. "Anyway, while the kids are out in the back, the adults will be having our own party…it's theme is pretty bearable this year…James Bond…so all you'll need is a suave suit and you're set. Party's at 7, come by if you haven't completely passed out by then," he invited.

"I'll see what I can do," Seth replied as calmly as he could. Inside, he was enraged enough as it is. You could see it in his brown eyes. He had the smile of an angel and the eyes of a scarred man.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Once Seth got inside his home, he paced around it anxiously. He stopped in front of the mirror.

Seth looked at it while breathing rapidly. His face had even gotten closer to resembling his old face, up to the point where the two would have been mistaken for brothers. He leaned on the walled mirror and felt his hair. He stood there, absolutely anguished. He was a little terrified at what he was feeling…thinking.

He walked over to the nearest restroom and washed his face. As he washed it, he stood there, looking at the mirror. He had the face of an angel on the outside, but he had the scars of a beaten and tired man on the inside.

Seth punched the mirror as hard as he could, shattering the glass. He held his scream and looked at his bleeding hand. It was shaking.

_He looked at William with the same troubled and pained look he had for a while now. "You know, when I was 17, I'd gotten news that my best friend was leaving for good, I wasn't programmed to capably handle any of that…so I got on a boat and ran away for a while. I froze my ass off for so many nights," Seth explained with a small hint of a smile, reminiscing about his boyhood days. _

_Seth continued, "All the way up until I died, I was inept to handle a surge of sadness. I either suffered inside, but smiled and joked, or I ran away from it." Seth clenched his fist as he looked over the ocean. You could see how significantly hurt and angry he was. Seth had learned many things about the happenings in __Orange__County__. "I can't let go Will. I can't. Don't rob me of my hate."_

_The gentle elderly man approached Seth and looked at him gravely. "You saved me. Now I'm going to protect you…even if it is from yourself. You're Aidan Crowe now…a completely new identity. Leave __Newport Beach__ to be, you died, remember?" William begged._

_"—But I'm not dead, am I?" Seth's tone grew louder. He kicked the light pole several times, up until the light pole was dented, which would have taken a significant amount of strength. Have I changed this much? Seth thought as he looked at the pole with his exhausted, reddened face. _

_He looked at William broken, "My father is sick, my mother is bankrupt, Ryan is in prison and she………she's married……it took Summer a year to marry the very man who's destroyed all of my family…"_

_A week later, Seth had arranged a home in __Newport__ for his indefinite stay there._


	7. The Meeting

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. Moo. Quack?**

**_Author's Note: _**Thanks again for all the kind reviews; it's what keeps a writer going. Please continue to review. Littleputz114 write in your next review if you still haven't gotten the picture and I'd be glad to send it to you. =) Sorry for the lack of daily updates, I've been uber busy for the past few days. Btw, I tried to coordinate the songs related to the story to the type of songs Summer and Seth would listen to.=)

**_Author's Note on the story:_** Sorry if the last chapter was a bit confusing, I'm a confusing writer like that. =p Anyway, somewhere along the story I'll get to how Seth got to that point, but mainly what I wanted you guys to get out of it was that Seth, somewhere in those 6-7 years, saved a guy named William Crowe's life and for _some_ reason (which will be explained later), Seth does tell him his secret. It shows a lot of trust between the two. And that Seth's become powerful because of William. William helped make up that identity of Aidan Crowe and his story about being his ex-lover's son so that no one would ever try to dig up on who Aidan Crowe was and why William would ever make him heir to his fortunes. But the truth of it is that William and Seth have come to trust each other, which I hope was expressed in the last few lines, but I get confusing like that sometimes. Last chapter, the things in italics was a flashback to a week before, when Seth decided that he had to go back to Orange County. So thanks for the heads up on that guys! Write in your reviews if the story's still confusing, I'll try to clarify it as best as I can =).

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**Chapter 7 – The Meeting**

_The Cure – "Thousand Hours"_

_For how much longer can I howl into this wind?   
For how much longer can I cry like this? _

_A thousand wasted hours a day,   
Just to feel my heart for a second,   
A thousand hours just thrown away,   
Just to feel my heart for a second, _

_For how much longer can I howl into this wind? _

He wasn't sure whether it was an effect of being brought back to life or whether it was merely a physiological disorder, but Seth had a hard time feeling his own heartbeat. The doctors that gave him physicals had declared that he was alive and healthy every year, so perhaps it was just him and his over-thinking that led him to believe that his heartbeat was weak and/or nonexistent.

Seth sat at the backseat of his private car, staring at the sites of the home he once knew as his chauffeur drove him around town. Seth had taken a long nap after the meeting in the morning and afterwards had made a request to his chauffeur to drive him around Newport Beach.

Seth rubbed his forehead with his hand slowly. He had much to deal with and although he did not fear death anymore, he feared that by coming back to Newport, he was somehow shortening his time on earth. He knew that his unfulfilled business was in Newport, but he did not know what it was. He feared that he'd unconsciously fulfill that business before he could make things right and before he could get his revenge.

He looked at his watch—2:30 PM. And once he looked up at the scenery, he requested his chauffeur to stop. School was being let out at the Dalton Grammar School.

Seth stepped out of his car and put on a long dark coat. It was an extremely gray October day, a bit like one of those days when one would look up and wonder when the rain would come out, and the rain would tease you with sprinkles and then stop.

He knew what he was looking for, yet he didn't. When the Private Investigators he hired offered, Seth decided to not look at the picture of his son, hoping that when the time had come and he would see him in person, he'd spot his son himself…somehow, through a gut feeling.

Seth grew excited as the kids barged through the entrance doors like a herd of prison inmates given the opportunity to bust out of their prison cells.

Seeing all the little boys with dark hair, Seth soon realized how much of a bad idea it was to not have looked at a picture of his son before leaving for Newport. _Stupid father-son reunion fantasies. Seth thought as he stood a few hundred feet from the main entrance doors._

Even though Dalton was a private school, with relatively fewer students than in a regular public school, the hoard of kids rushing out of the institution in excitement made the task of finding his son absolutely daunting.

A few minutes later though, when the mass broke, Seth looked around the leftover kids, hoping that his son hadn't left with the other kids.

It was then that he saw a few hundred feet in front of him a little boy with red converses, showing a little 4-year-old girl some sort of magic trick.

Perhaps the little boy wasn't his son, but it was how he'd envisioned his son to look like—having his physique, Summer's smile and his dimples.

Something struck Seth at that moment that softened what he had turned into steel for years now—he was almost ashamed at what he'd done a few hours earlier, punching the mirror. He'd never ever do that around his son.

Seth got closer and closer to the little boy who had on red sneakers, but before Seth got the chance to try and figure out who the little boy was, the boy rashly crossed the street for his red ball after a stranger bumped into him.

Seth felt his heart pound for the first time. He heard a scream from behind him as he pulled the boy out of harms way, uttering "ADDAAAAAAAAAM".

_It was his son._

He left before the familiar voice yelling his son's name got there.

----------------------------------------------------------------

_A few hours later…_

She was the most striking woman there.

Grant that there were tons of "pretty" women who'd fit the category of gorgeous in some smutty men's magazine, with their oversized breasts and bouncy hair, but Summer Reilly was a classic beauty.

With her long dark hair, perfectly fairly tanned skin and mesmerizing smile, every woman envied and despised her, not only for her looks and wealth, but also for being married to Tom Reilly, the object of many of their affections.

Summer catered to the Newport crowd, knowing full well of their constant gossiping and ill thoughts about her. Years ago, the feisty Summer Cohen would have put all of them back into their place, not standing for any façade and giving them all a piece of her mind. But now, she almost seemed entrapped between keeping Tom happy and keeping Tom's clients happy—and all of those women were either clients of Tom's or wives of Tom's clients.

With that in mind, Summer stood by the door with Tom, with a keen distance from each other, greeting all of their incoming guests for the evening's James Bond themed Halloween party.

Summer was dressed as a classic bond girl, in a gorgeous silky white gown—a world away from the Wonder Woman costume she used to love wearing for Seth every Halloween………and Chrismukah…and Thanksgiving…and Fourth of July...and April Fool's Day…and Valentine's Day…and Earth Day…and St. Patrick's Day……and Yom Kippur.

Once the butler announced to their fifty or so guests, "Dinner will be served in one hour, please help yourselves to some cocktails and a dance or two," and the onslaught of guests through their mansion doors slowed down, Summer headed towards the backyard, where the children were playing. She felt more comfortable being around them than being stomped on by everyone else in the lobby.

---------------------------

Seth, looking ever so dashing in a black tuxedo with a silky white bow tie, rushed up the steps. He looked at his watch and realized how extremely late he was to the party. Of course he couldn't help it, as he was busy setting up his chess pieces for a long conclusion, but he would have liked to have made it to Tom's party on time. He didn't want to bring too much attention to himself at Newport yet. He had a plan for everything.

Seth doorbelled and was soon let in by Tom's butler. "Hello sir, we've just started the meal, may I have your name so I could announce it at the dinner table?"

"Co—Crowe. Aidan Crowe."

---------------------------

Summer sat on the other side of the long table from Tom. There were tons of other tables set up all over the home, but the main long table was occupied by Tom and Tom's close friends. None of Summer's family and friends were there.

Tom stood up to make a speech, "Thank you for all coming. It's yet another wonderful party thrown by my beautiful wife, Summer," he said with a sparkling smile. "I cherish these moments with you as though they were my last, even if it is just a Halloween party. I value my clients as they value my homes and I hope this will always continue," Tom continued. He then rose up his wine glass and said, "To my beautiful wife and to my son." All of the guests raised their wine glass and toasted.

It was then that Adam entered in his bunny costume. He seemed almost depressed that Tom made him wear the bunny costume, hoping it would charm some of his clients, instead of the Gambit costume that Adam wanted to wear.

He ran to his mother immediately, almost bashful. By then, all of the guests, including Tom, had immersed in their wine and gossip and wouldn't have noticed if a naked green man ran across the room.

Summer held her son's hand and swung it with him as she sat there, awaiting for the night to end. "What's wrong baby?" Summer asked, looking at her son's bashful face.

"The kids in the back tore my tail off," he explained, looking at the floor with his big watery eyes. Adam was a tough kid that put up with a lot of the things other kids did to him, but it still hurt him.

Summer kissed her son's forehead. "Baby, I'd tell you to beat them up, or at least sling shot them from afar," Summer teased, evoking a smile from her son, "but you and me are outnumbered tonight."

"Do I have to go back there?" Adam asked, worried that even though his mother would say "no", Tom would override her judgment and say "yes".

"Just head up there and I'll bring you up some pudding, but pretend you're going to the backyard, so he doesn't notice, okay?" Summer told her son in a whisper. Adam hugged his mom and excitedly embraced the concept of never seeing the other kids again and with his ears flopping, rushed out of the main dining room area.

Summer looked down and saw Adam's whiskers on the floor. _So that's where those fell, Summer thought._

As she bent down to pick them up, the butler had walked in and introduced some name. Summer, too occupied in gathering Adam's whiskers together, didn't bother getting up. It was just another snooty client she'd have to falsify another smile at.

But as she was underneath the table, there was a silence in the room. _Oh my god, they've shut up, I must have died and gone to paradise, Summer thought. _That group was never silent, unless of course it somehow benefited them by being silent.

As Summer got out from underneath the table, she bumped her head. _Dammit__. That's going to get laughs, she thought. _Still disoriented from the small bump, she put Adam's whiskers on the table and didn't even look straight ahead. She first looked to her left and right, to see if anyone had seen her bump her head.

But no one saw.

They were all too busy with their perfect smiles, glaring straight ahead. It was some bizarre Pleasantville-like moment, with all of their heads turned at a perfect angle, staring straight ahead with giant smiles.

Summer looked ahead and her heart stopped. All she saw was the back of his head, as his body was turned towards Tom, who by then had gotten up and shaken hands with this new guest, but his physique was all too familiar—the dark, semi-curly hair standing at around 6 feet…

She couldn't explain what she'd felt in words. She knew in all rationale that it wouldn't be who she hoped it would be…it was an impossible dream, she grasped.

But when you love someone so much, and you run into someone whose figure resembled them, even from afar, all you could hope for, in spite of all irrationalities, was that when they did turn around…it wasn't some stranger who resembled that person you loved…but that person.

"Summer, come up here and meet someone," Tom ordered.

Summer hesitantly got up. She wasn't even sure why she was hesitant.

The man turned around.

Summer's heart pounded at its fastest.

"Aidan, this is my wife, Summer," Tom introduced.

Seth looked directly into her eyes and uttered calmly, "Hello." His dimples protruded as he said this.

"Hello," Summer replied.

_Britney Spears – "Every time" _

_Notice me,  
Take my hand,  
Why are we strangers when our love is strong?  
Why carry on without me?  
  
Everytime I try to fly,  
I fall without my wings,  
I feel so small,  
I guess I need you baby,  
And everytime I see you in my dreams,  
I see your face, it's haunting me,  
I guess I need you baby.  
  
I make believe that you are here,  
It's the only way I see clear.  
What have I done?  
You seem to move on easy.  
  
And everytime I try to fly,  
I fall without my wings,  
I feel so small,  
I guess I need you baby,  
And everytime I see you in my dreams,  
I see your face, you're haunting me,  
I guess I need you baby.  
  
I may have made it rain,  
Please forgive me.  
My weakness caused you pain,  
And this song is my sorry.  
_


	8. Ryan

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love pink jelly beans. Does anyone actually read this? Ruff ruff.**

**_Author's Note: _**Sorry if I'm lagging in the update department, I usually like to have things up at least every other day, but I've been strangely busy.

**_Author's Note on the Story:_** You guys all are DEFINITELY getting the right vibe about Tom and Summer. =) Also, I'll be changing the title of this story to "**Chasing Ghosts**", so please take note of that.

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**Chapter 8 – Ryan**

The California State Prison in Corcoran went beyond the depths of grim. Even if the warden and prison guards were not abusive, they were certainly oblivious to the underlying events at the maximum security prison. Constant beatings, stabbings and actions of an extremely explicit nature took place there—it was what one would expect when murderers, rapists, serial killers, necromancers, pedophiles and so forth were housed together.

It was what Ryan Atwood had to call home.

_His life had turned an entire 180 degrees after a strange twist of fate—he met the benevolent Sandy Cohen, who had in turn, introduced him into a warm and loving environment. _

_Behaviorists in psychology suggested that a person's intelligence and well-being was strictly upon the environment it was in, and it certainly proved true for Ryan. When Ryan was fully adopted by the Cohen's, he'd gained a mother who cared for him during his moments of weakness, a father who responsibly scolded him during his moments of rebellion and a brother who admired him during most of his moments. _

_Ryan thrived._

_Of course, like any story in life, his life would not remain perfect. It turned back another 180 degrees when a part of the family had broken off—when Seth died._

_He was formally charged with conspiring Seth's death—that he had hired a man to purposely brake in front of Seth's car._

_All the evidence pointed that he was guilty, that Ryan had done it in order to gain Seth's inheritance. _

_The prosecutors' story was simple. Seth had written in his will that should anything happen to him, Ryan would be the handler in all of his estate. Seth did not want his parents to have to deal with Julie Cooper-Nichol trying to get a piece of his inheritance and he did not want Summer's stepmother destroying Summer for the sake of getting a piece, so he entrusted the responsibility strictly on Ryan, as he knew that Ryan would take care of Summer and the rest of his family. With pressures from his brother Trey's bookies, threatening his life, Ryan grew desperate. The prosecutors found it all perfect elements for Ryan's guilt._

_Before Ryan knew it, he was pronounced guilty._

Ryan sat in his cell looking like all the life had been taken out of him. It had been a common theme amongst the Cohen's, for if death did not make a person stronger, it certainly made them weaker practically to the point of shattering.

His boyish dirty blond hair had grown long and unfashionably disheveled. His clean face now sported a shaggy beard. His face had a few scars—marks that showed how his life in Corcoran was.

He sat and remembered the looks Sandy, Kirsten and Marissa gave him once the prosecutor presented irrefutable evidence that Ryan was guilty and the jury sentenced him.

"Kirsten, you have to believe me!" Ryan desperately screamed. Kirsten stepped out of the room immediately. Ryan knew that she had broken down outside.

"I am not guilty. I am not guilty!" Ryan screamed. Sandy, who throughout the entire case, used most of the family's funds to hire and pay for the best lawyers for Ryan, believing that Ryan would never be guilty of such a deed, looked in disbelief and disgust. Sandy looked enraged.

Ryan saw Marissa and clenched both of his fists. He saw the girl whom he had been through so much with—just broken. She was on Sandy's shoulder, crying and crying. He couldn't protect her anymore. He couldn't even protect himself.

"Marissa!" he screamed as the guards ordered him to shut up.

As the guards were putting handcuffs on him, he saw Summer enter the courtroom. For the most part, Summer had avoided all of the proceedings—she didn't want to lose another part of Seth. The life had been taken out of her enough as it was. It looked as though she literally could no longer cry tears, as a result of crying too much. But the prosecutors had called her in.

One of the prosecutors, a rather short, red-headed man approached Summer. He was quick and cold with his words, as though he always had another place to be constantly. "Jury was hung on the sentence. Would you like to pursue the death penalty?" the man asked.

Summer shook her head, "No."

Ryan's knees shook and fell to the ground. He knelt in the middle of the courtroom in tears.

_Bob Dylan – "Hurricane"_

_Here comes the story of the Hurricane,  
The man the authorities came to blame  
For somethin' that he never done.  
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been  
The champion of the world.****_


	9. Chasing Ghosts

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love pink jelly beans. Does anyone actually read this? Ruff ruff.**

---------------------------------------------------

**Chapter 9 – Chasing Ghosts**

They sat near each other for the entire five-course meal at the Reilly residence. Summer sat at the other head of the table while Seth was engrossed with Newport Beach's wealthiest inquiring much about him and his fortune—after all, Aidan Crowe was now officially the most powerful member of Newport Beach, surpassing Richard and Julie Houston's companies with all of Mr. Crowe's connections and fortune.

Summer sat at her chair, with her back straight, laughing with the others on painfully pretentious and tacky jokes—carefully eyeing the handsome stranger, but she did it so clandestinely so that none of the Newport gossip queens would get any ideas.

It was common for the Newport gossip queens to begin a rumor by merely catching a person out of their place—they were good, they could've spotted a scandal a million miles away, by even the slightest look.

She knew exactly why she was interested—he looked like Seth. Any man who'd entered her life that looked remotely like Seth interested her. She felt horrible for this. It's as though she couldn't let go of her deceased husband—that she's not letting Seth Cohen rest in peace. Not to mention the fact that she was a married woman.

But she also felt that it was different. It wasn't just his uncanny resemblance to Seth at such an extreme point, with only a few variances that she felt haunted—but there was something in the way Aidan Crowe first looked at her that was poignant.

During the dinner, Seth had charmed the entire room with interesting and funny anecdotes, but made sure to remain genuinely calm and cool. After all, a person too vocal his first night in the Newport circle might be chastised for being too self-absorbed.

Summer's heart grew uneasy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After dinner, Seth and the rest of the guests returned to the main party area to dance and socialize. The nannies and chauffeurs had taken the children home, for it was now the adults' time to enjoy Halloween.

Like some celebrity, Seth was encompassed by a small crowd of extremely inquisitive people, while the other members went over to dance.

Summer stood near Tom as he spoke with a few of his other guests. It was her usual spot during any party—always a few feet behind or near Tom, with one eye on the clock and one eye on the exit.

"Excuse me, Tom, I'd like to run off with your wife and make her mine," a voice requested.

Tom and Summer turned around. When she first heard this, Summer did not sigh the way she usually did when one of Tom's friends went up to her, asked her out to dance and then hit on her during the dance.

"I'm sorry, run that by me again?" Tom inquired.

Seth stood there with a teasing smile. "Run off with her...…for a dance," Seth smoothly explained.

Tom laughed his usual fake and hard laugh.

Seth stuck his hand out.

Summer's right hand met his.

As they danced, Summer tried to throw out whatever strange thoughts and feelings she had towards this stranger and categorize him as just another snooty member of Newport, but she couldn't. She didn't know what she was feeling. She didn't know whether it was distrust or trust or something calculating or something warm that she was feeling. She just couldn't understand it.

The stranger smiled at her. "What?" she asked with a brief laugh.

"Normally I'd be flattered if a woman as beautiful as yourself were staring at me, but considering your marital status, I think that you were staring at me during dinner because of some appallingly huge mole I've grown in the middle of appetizers and the main course," he said with a smirk.

Summer laughed a little, but was also a little worried. "I didn't know I was that apparent," Summer commented.

"You weren't," he replied, "I was just kidding."

Summer felt like an idiot then. _I fell for the oldest trick in the book, Summer thought. _"I feel like a gushy teenage girl," she admitted.

"Me too, especially the girl part," he said looking down into her eyes with a dimpled smile. "Well since we're on the subject and we're bound to be friends now that I live a few blocks from you, and I'm in desperate need of someone to exchange Tupperware and do aerobics with, why not enlighten me and tell me why you were staring? I could've sworn I'd surgically removed that third nipple from my forehead."

Summer was hesitant. But her heart grew calmer. She felt safe near him. "You just remind me of someone……someone I really loved," she found herself commenting.

"Who?"

Summer didn't answer that question, she just continued to smile and dance with him.

As they danced, their bodies were in close proximity of each other—the closest two bodies could go without kissing. It seemed as though the two didn't care about what was around them.

He looked into her eyes one more time and it was then that he saw one small tear fall from her eye. It was hardly noticeable to anyone else but him and her. Summer felt ashamed. After all, this was essentially just another man. _I must be really freaking him out, Summer thought._

Summer thought about unexplainably stopping their dance and leaving, perhaps saving some of her dignity, but she couldn't get herself to do it.

Instead, her butler did it for her. "Excuse me madam, but there is a phone call for you from a Ms. Marissa Cooper," he explained as he held up the phone beside the two.

"I'm sorry," Summer explained to the stranger.

"That's alright…I needed to relieve myself of all fluids anyway," he replied. Before he left for the bathroom and she took her call, both gave each other another look back at different times.

--------------------------------------------

Seth got to the bathroom and punched the walls a few times. _I cannot fall for her. I cannot fall for her. He told himself several times. _His plans for vengeance were still going significantly well, as he had perfectly established a good relationship with Tom _and_ Summer. But he underestimated his vulnerability—he thought he'd be strong enough to be able to be around her without feeling anything for her.

He was wrong.

He looked in the mirror and tried to remind himself of everything that has happened.

Suddenly, the warmness that had occurred in him during those brief minutes with Summer ended. He was ready to face her again.

------------------------------------------

Marissa sounded distraught as she said hello to Summer. "What's wrong Coop?" Summer asked worriedly.

Silently and softly, on the other end, Summer heard, "Ryan's sentence has been appealed. Some attorney is saying that he has all the evidence and backing to prove that Ryan is completely innocent. His case is going to be retried."

Summer dropped the phone.

---------------------------------------------------

The party ended without the two having to meet each other again.

Summer walked around her community's private beach.

Summer's mind was no longer occupied with the stranger, in fact, he had slipped her mind. Her mind was instead directed back to all the pain and sorrow she felt when she lost her husband. And then the second wave of pain and sorrow she felt when her friend went to prison. Her third wave of pain and sorrow that she went through was her conflicted thoughts towards Ryan.

Everyone looked at him in disgust and she wanted to kill her husband's murderer too, but Summer couldn't feel that animosity towards Ryan—perhaps devastated that such a trusted family member would do that, but not animosity, and she felt disgusted at herself that she couldn't do that, almost as though she was betraying Seth somehow, by not hating his killer. She never could've fathomed that Ryan could do such a thing, so she tried to erase her mind of it over the next several years, continuing to live her life.

Ryan was a subject she and Marissa never talked about. It pained, angered and confused them too much.

But now, the subject they had tried to avoid for so long came back to haunt them both. They knew they couldn't bury it, not without closure. Ryan could have possibly been framed.

She wouldn't be able to live with herself after that. _What would Seth think of me, not helping Ryan out all these years? Summer thought. Ryan has been suffering because of me, because I didn't do anything. _

She hated herself.

She sat there on the sand and cried. She felt so selfish, focusing on her pain, when Ryan too, suffered from Seth's loss.

"It's statistically unsafe to walk around the beach when it's nearly pitched black," someone commented.

Summer wiped her face immediately and turned around to see who it was.

Aidan Crowe. She gave him a look that conveyed the question, _What are you doing here?_

"Well I thought that I was on the verge of being robbed, so I headed down here," Seth explained.

Summer looked and realized she'd walked so far that she ended up near the new Crowe residence and trespassed into his private beach. "I'm so sorry," Summer said as she quickly got up and started to walk away.

"Wait," Seth stopped her. "Look, I know I'm a complete stranger to you and I'd probably be the last person on this world you'd like to talk to—"

She interrupted him, "You're not stranger."

Seth's heart pounded. It was the second time he felt it. She said it in such a haunting tone that he almost felt as if she saw right through him and saw Seth Cohen.

She smiled a little, "You're Aidan Crowe."

"Exactly…"

She looked at him. "You're not the last person in the world I'd like to talk to." They both sat on the sand with a safe distance from each other.

At first, they both sat in silence for a few minutes.

"When I said you reminded me of someone, I never did tell you who," Summer began to explain, looking directly into the ocean.

The darkness was beautiful. Whenever it was evening at a beach, the ocean line and skyline became one beautiful dark plane. It felt as though you were in space, or in a completely different world.

She continued, "God, I feel like this is turning into some really cheesy soap opera…"

"I'll inform you when it gets that way," he assured her with a smile.

"I had a husband before Tom who'd died in a car crash," she began to explain. "I loved him more than this world would ever understand, maybe I just didn't get to say it to him everyday, but I did. I felt it every time I'd wake up right beside him, even if he did piss me off. He wouldn't know it, but I'd be awake, watching him snore and smile as he slept………and when I saw you….........you just reminded me so much of him……I felt like I was seeing……chasing his ghost—"

He put one of his hands on her head and kissed her.

She pulled back.

She looked at him with concerned eyes.

And then she kissed him back.

_Dashboard Confessional – "Ghost of a good thing"_

_But, I believe in you so much   
I could die for the words that you say   
But, I believe in you so much   
I could die from the words that you say   
  
But, you're chasin' the ghost of a good thing   
Haunting yourself as the real thing   
It's getting away from you again   
While you're chasin' ghosts   
  
Just bend the pieces til they fit   
Like they were made for it   
But, they weren't meant for this   
No, they weren't meant for this   
  
Just bend the pieces til they fit   
Like they were made for it   
But, they weren't meant for this   
  
Chasin' the ghost of a good thing   
Haunting yourself as the real thing  
It's getting away, away, away, away from you again_


	10. The SixYear Scar

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love pink jelly beans. Does anyone actually read this? Ruff ruff.**

**_Author's Note: _**I just wanted to apologize to everyone for having such a long break period from the last time I wrote, it was completely unintentional. To cut a long story short, I graduated in June, found out two days later that someone backed out of this one traveling program I was the alternate for and suddenly five days later I was traveling all over Asia and Europe. It was extremely hectic getting all my stuff together, so I couldn't update the story. Then during the trip, around late July, right before I was going to go home, I had a small accident (involving me falling face first), as I am without a doubt the clumsiest person in the world. The small accident ended up affecting me more than I expected, as I was diagnosed with Temporomandibular disorder (I think that's how you spell it)—a thing where you've got headaches from hell constantly and can't swallow or sleep or think clearly (well at least I couldn't). So for a while now, I've been incapable of doing anything but watching episodes of The Golden Girls, Spongebob Squarepants, The O.C and a ton of movies…all while in pain. I feel better now, it took meds and some trips to the doctor's. Absolutely cured, I think…I hope. So now I'm finishing off what I've started.

So for the readers still out there interested in this story, I hope you enjoy it. I could not express more how sorry I am for the hiatus and I hope that you'll still continue to read this story. And if you don't, it's okay, I understand if you're pissed. I'll be finishing this up within the next two weeks, before I head off for college. PLEASE CONTINUE TO REVIEW, I was surprised that a lot of people have gotten to really enjoy and look forward to this story. Thanks again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter 10 – The Six-Year Scar**

What just happened? Both thought at the same time as they slammed their front doors shut. It had been a good half hour after the kissing debacle and both frantically paced around their own homes.

_I'm married. Ryan. How did I do this? I'm a married woman. Ryan's free, what will I say to him? How will Sandy and Kirsten react? How will Tom react to all of this? Did I just kiss a man I just met?—not the first time, but high school's long over. What the hell did I just do? All of this ran through Summer's head, when she suddenly heard a creak from behind her. _She hoped to God that it wasn't Tom.

"Mommy, my ear hurts, I accidentally stuck a candy corn in it," a little voice whispered.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seth was at his home, keeping himself away from mirrors. His hand was scratched up enough that it was a miracle that no one in the party noticed his banged up hand.

He walked quickly upstairs to his office—he wanted to go into his vault and reopen the files that the private investigators had given him. He wanted to believe at that point that Summer did not remarry immediately because of love but because she had to for some reason. His heart had never pounded that way and it didn't stop, even at the beach. Seth wanted to believe in Summer.

He opened a bottle of the finest and strongest liquor around and started staring at the files. He drank and drank as he stared at everything. He stared at the pictures taken of her and Tom kissing on a sailboat, with Adam, just 3 years old, on board playing with a super soaker.

Seth had always been a man of smiles, but he began to slowly cry. He loved Summer so much that he could have forgiven her for it all—I mean he'd already gone through all the stages…denial, anger and grief.

Ever since they were young, he was always ready to go into submission whenever Summer looked at him. Deep inside of him, he always believed it was progress—that Summer was going to be in his arms. Even when she called him "Stanley", instead of "Seth", a billion times, Seth stood by her side, waiting for her to fall in love with him.

She did. And it was the best feeling ever—lying beside each other, arguing and yelling, and then kissing the very next second.

Seth cried now because there was too much weight in his heart to forgive Summer this time around. Perhaps had it not been Tom, he would have. After all, he did die in her eyes.

But Tom destroyed everything around him, from Ryan to his parents.

Tom was now the head of the Newport Group, a position that was once held by Seth's grandfather and mother. He gained control of Seth's massive fortune from Caleb Niccol through Summer. With that, Tom partnered with Richard Houston, owner of the largest realty company in the nation—Cathexis Incorporated. Richard Houston was a man that Seth despised when he was alive. He saw how taxing he was towards Kirsten. He pushed and pushed to try to gain control of the Newport Group and she did everything in her power to keep what she and Caleb had kept afloat for years—and for a while, she did. But then Seth died and her will to fight sank along with her son's ashes once Ryan, who she had hoped would run the company, was convicted of planning Seth's death. Now, because of Tom, Richard was now the most powerful company on both coasts.

_Why? Why? Seth, extremely plastered, kept asking himself. Why of all the men in the world, did she choose Tom, unless Summer too, was involved in his own death somehow._

-----------------------------------------

After dealing with her mischievous but nevertheless charming and sweet son, she tucked him into bed and gently rubbed his back, slowly lulling him back to sleep. He started to breathe heavily the way his father did, with an occasional baby snore here and there.

It was dorkishly cute. It reminded him of when he was an infant.

She laughed a little, with a few tears coming down her eyes. Her heart raced again when she started to think about the kiss she and Aidan had. Even though he was a stranger, he felt so familiar to her. It was a combination of tears and smiles at that moment.

Summer's six years had been a living hell.

_…She held her newborn son in her arms. It was a combination of tears and smiles for her and everyone around her. Like any newborn child, he was so small and so soft. _

_Taking after his father almost immediately, he was freaked out by the world around him and cried like no other. His grandfather Sandy, whose eyes were watery, was the one who had the immediate gift of calming the newborn down. He put on a miniature yarmulke on the baby's head (the little cap Jewish men put on for special occasions or Sabbath) and consequently, the baby gave off his first smile. This of course made Summer smile, as well as everyone else in the room _

_A few weeks later, Summer, with only the thought of a joyous and peaceful life ahead of her with their son, was a happy woman, all things considered._

_But Tom suddenly entered her life. He was a "friend" of Seth's and charmed his way into Summer's life. Summer did not think of him romantically at all, her heart belonged to her late husband, but she did trust Tom. _

_Summer was not the trusting type, but after having had a baby, and with her being estranged with her own family, and with the Cohens dealing with financial and legal burdens and with Marissa Cooper, the one friend she truly trusted, overdosing on cocaine a week ago, she felt alone. And when Tom somehow got Marissa to willingly go to rehab, a task that even she or Jimmy Cooper, Marissa's beloved father, could not do, Summer became eternally grateful._

_So Tom quickly entered all of their lives—Summer's, the Cohen's, the Cooper's, with all of them not even noticing. And just a little before Seth's death anniversary, Summer crushed, shocked and astonished everyone with the announcement that she would marry again._

_Everyone wondered at how Summer could even be capable of such a decision. Kirsten and Sandy Cohen were especially at first, hurt. But they loved their daughter-in-law and believed that Seth's death anniversary made her want to seize the day at an even faster pace—after all, it wasn't as though Summer was cheating on their dead son._

_But the real reason as to why Summer accepted Tom's proposal so hastily would remain Summer's secret._


	11. The Vessel In Between

**DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-) Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love pink jelly beans. Does anyone actually read this? Ruff ruff.**

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter 11 – The vessel in between**

**Two Weeks later…**

Seth finished tying his dark blue cummerbund and smiled at his success. It'd taken him three decades to do it on his own without a struggle. He put on his black Armani coat and looked at himself in the mirror. He winked at himself.

"Not too shabby Cohen, not too shabby indeed," he told himself.

Seth nearly jumped up once he heard a knock at his bedroom door. He pretended to be serious again.

"Mr. Crowe, the chauffeur has ordered me to inform you that your limousine is ready," one of his butlers explained.

"Thank you, Chancey," Seth responded with a smile. And so Seth was off to one of the Newport Group's largest charity events.

----------------------------------------

Seth sat in his car, unsure of how to handle the Summer situation. For two weeks, Seth was successfully able to avoid Summer and vice versa.

Seth kept himself busy, moving his chess pieces into all the right places—mainly by trying to fast-track Ryan's trial and having him out possibly within a week or two. With Ryan under California jurisdiction, it'd seem like an impossibility to get his case re-tried, but Seth was good at getting his way…and it also helped that he had all the financial means to pursue whatever endeavor he pleased.

The Crowe mansion also kept busy, with Seth hiring more and more staff to maintain the vast property. What had once been a dark and silent castle suddenly became a lively palace full of vigor.

The driver stopped the car at the harbor. Seth rolled down his window to see the immeasurable vessel he was about to ride on.

"Do you think they will serve caviar, sir?" the driver teased.

"I am certain, that without a doubt, a vessel of such a magnitude and elegance, would not only have caviar served, but would have fountains shooting it out, along with Donald Trump wiping your ass in the powder room," Seth replied in a fake British accent as he stepped out of the vehicle.

Even the Titanic couldn't compare to this vessel.

-----------------------------------------

Summer stood at a small, secluded area of the vessel, dressed in an elegant, yet simple light pink gown, with an adorable shawl that made Summer look Grace Kelly-esque. The rest of the guests danced and compared stock tips, Mercedes Benz's, and plastic surgery outcomes at the main part of the ship. She was on her cell phone speaking with Marissa.

"Coop, slap on a dress and head on over here, you're a complete mess and you need to get out of the house, things will not change by you staying at home, being miserable," Summer explained. She sighed in frustration after Marissa explained to her that she would be incapable of going. "I'll be over there in half an hour, I just need to stay here long enough to stand by Tom when he presents his speech, and Coop, don't even think about snorting anything other than air freshener, is that clear? Good."

Summer closed her cell phone, with nothing on her mind but hurrying home to the mentally imbalanced Marissa. That was until…

"It's good to hear that someone actually on this ship is pro-drug free, considering this charity is for Orange County's Red Ribbon week and rehab clinics. The last time I checked, everyone donating to the anti-drug cause on this boat injects more drugs into their system than Kurt Cobain would ever dream of," the familiar voice smoothly joshed from behind her.

Summer closed her eyes for a brief second and then turned around.

She hoped that it wasn't Aidan Crowe, but it was.

Seth smirked. "I get the feeling that you're not all that happy to see me."

"Actually, I was hoping you'd be half way across the country by now," Summer replied. In spite of her best judgments, she knew that what she said was a lie.

Seth moved closer toward her, and as he got closer, Summer's heart raced faster and faster, to the point where she felt like her heart was going to burst out of her.

He turned her around and wrapped his arms around her. "What are you doing?!" Summer asked. He held up Summer's right arm with his and pointed to the night sky. "The whole Russell Crowe/A Beautiful Mind thing was sooo 10 years ago," Summer explained.

"Well actually, I can't make animals or umbrellas out of the sky," he explained as he moved her arm with his and connected the night stars to make a shape, "I can't only make really crappy circles and happy faces."

Summer laughed.

"Now that I've made a complete ass out of myself, and perhaps made the situation easier for us to talk..." Seth let go and moved away a foot. "About a few weeks ago—" he began to explain.

Summer tried to start talking. She tried to say, "It was a mistake." But everything in her believed otherwise.

He looked at her, "Were you going to say something?"

"No."

Seth looked at her intensely, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, now talk," Summer ordered.

Seth nodded, "I wanted to apologize for a few weeks ago. It wasn't my intention to be a man-whore."

"Delicately put, Mr. Crowe," Summer replied.

_Aidan. Why do I want her to call me Seth so badly? Seth thought to himself._

"Please call me—Aidan," Seth requested. "Calling me Mr. Crowe would seem as though I never made out with you two weeks ago," he teased.

Summer's smile broke out again. "You have this talent for making me smile more than I'd usually ever want to in a day, you _are_ a very talented man-whore……And we didn't make out, we had a quick kiss."

"If you define five minutes quick, then sure," he replied smiling and looking at the ground and then at her, as though he was in the fifth grade again.

Summer smiled, turned around, and faced the railing. Seth stood beside her. She began to cover her face and shake her head. "I'm sorry, I'm a married woman and I should be taking all of this seriously and bribing you heavily to make sure that you don't tell my husband," Summer explained.

"But?"

"But, I—I," with that, Summer began to kiss him again. She slammed him to a wall in the secluded area. Seth didn't want to pull away. Summer did it for him. "I'm sorry, I can't help it, and I certainly can't explain it."

Seth, smiling the most dashing smile, placed his right hand on the right side of her head and looked at her intently. His right thumb slowly caressed her right cheek. "I've wanted to do this since I first saw you. You and no one else," he uttered in a whisper. He then pressed his lips on her neck. And then he slowly moved his way to her chin. And then to both of her cheeks. And then to her lips. And then finally to her forehead.

They leaned their heads into each other.

"I don't even know you and now I feel like I'm suddenly fated to have my story printed as some trashy romantic novel," Summer replied.

"SUMMER! SUMMER!" a loud, coarse voice called out from afar.

The two separated instantaneously.

"I'm on the other side of the bathrooms," Summer called out.

Suddenly, the oasis that Summer and Seth built was disrupted when Frank Parker, one of Tom's goons, came to where they were standing. Fortunately, Frank saw nothing.

"Tom is about to start his speech in ten minutes, he wanted me to find you," Frankie explained.

"Great. Now you did. Thank you," Summer said dismissingly.

Frank, as brainless as he was, saw that Summer and Aidan Crowe were alone in a secluded part of the boat, and although his brain couldn't put two and two together at Summer's infidelity, he did create the assumption that she and Aidan were up to something. "Tom wants you there immediately," Frank said almost robotically.

"I'll be there in two minutes," she explained, throwing quick glances at Seth. Frank continued to stand there. "Thanks, Frank," she hinted. Hesitantly, he nodded and left.

Summer was now a few feet from Seth, with the reality of their circumstances in between them. It was as though the entire enormous vessel was in between them.

Once the name Tom was mentioned, Seth grew angry. He looked at the ground, the way he did all throughout his life, when he was about to give something up he didn't want to, but had to. "Captain America is waiting, you better go," Seth requested.

"Cohen—" Summer immediately blurted out.

Seth looked up. "Aidan. Aidan Crowe."

Summer caught herself, "I'm sorry, it's just that you remind me—"

"So much of your first husband," Seth finished for her. Frustrated, Seth began to blurt out angrily, "I'm sorry Summer, but I can't be your husband. I can't be your Seth. Seth Cohen is dead."

Summer felt ashamed.

And then suddenly a force hit her. A sudden cold breeze blew. A tear fell from her right eye. Followed by a second one from her left. _The way he walks...the way he talks...the way he stands...the way he makes me feel...the way he smiles...the way he looks at me...the way he kisses me...Summer thought in her mind._ She looked at him with her tearful eyes, "I never told you that his first name was Seth."

Seth's heart jumped. His eyes slowly moved from the floor to Summer. He looked at her with guilty eyes, with the look of Seth Cohen.


	12. We Might As Well Be Strangers

**

* * *

Author's note/apology:** I know that I had promised to finish this story up a few months ago and although I was near there, my computer crashed, so I got discouraged and then I went off to school and got caught up in work and all the little miscellaneous things life has to offer.

I checked my old e-mail a week ago and was surprised to see that people were still reviewing this little story I did over the summer as a sort of coping mechanism to the O.C's off-season. I didn't know people still cared or still enjoyed it, so for those of you who reviewed even months after my last update, this is for you, as well as for all the people who are still into this story. And in response to one reviewer, it wasn't an ego booster that people still wanted me to update, it was more of a shock really. Anyway, if any of you are pissed at me for not updating, I'm really sorry. I think the only way I could really make it up to you is by continuing the story.

So without further interruption here it goes…

Also, please review if you do read this. They're quite helpful in the progress of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 12 – We Might As Well Be Strangers**

Summer looked at the familiar stranger with her heart pounding.

The beats of his heart matched hers.

"Who the hell are you?" Summer demanded. _Was this man involved in Seth's death? Is he slowly scheming to overthrow Tom from the Newport Group? Is he trying to ruin our family? How would he know such things? Is he… These were all thoughts running through Summer's head._

"Calm down. Whatever it is that you're thinking, I'm 99 percent certain that you're wrong," were Seth's first words. _Smooth one, jackass, Seth thought._ He looked at her with innocent eyes, even if his feelings were far from it.

"Mrs. Reilly!" yelled Tom's goon, Frank, from afar. "Tom is getting impatient!"

Seth slowly continued in a lower tone, talking and exchanging looks between Summer and the floor, "People know a lot of things. People tell a lot of stories. And it happens to be the case that your story crossed my path a week ago. Seth Cohen's death. Ryan Atwood's involvement. The heavy stuff soap operas are made of…but this time around, it's reality. …I---I'm sorry, gossip gets the best of me sometimes…especially with married women who kiss strange men they've only known for a few days."

Summer shook her head. "I'm going insane," Summer uttered with her face pressed on the palm of her hand in a state of confusion. She wiped the beginning of what looked like a tear from her face. "I'm sorry, this is all probably really awkward for you…. A hyper-emotional woman insisting that you are somehow linked to her dead husband. It's just that I----"

"Mrs. Reilly!" now Frank was walking towards them.

"---I have to go," Summer hastily explained as she walked away from Seth and headed to Frank. She shut both of her eyes for a few seconds, incredulous of the previous moment.

**

* * *

**

_**One week later…**_

**Berkeley, California**

Sandy Cohen stood on his lawn, in front of his tiny, peach-colored 1-bedroom home situated in a middle-class neighborhood in Orange County, attempting to putt a golf ball into a hole that he personally made five feet away from him. He did it with success.

From afar, the short, dark-haired man with hints of gray here and there, looked like his usual self.

It didn't seem like he was dying, but he was.

_Sandy__ and Kirsten Cohen's lives had drastically changed five years ago. The entire structure of their family had shattered in an instance. Like some bad Greek tragedy, the two never recovered. _

_Kirsten's company was taken over by Tom Reilly—her own daughter-in-law's new husband—a fact that they had a hard time accepting for a while, but grew to accept and love for Summer and Adam's sake. Their funds were then depleted by bad investments and bad brokers and it was only made worse a year ago when Sandy was diagnosed with having an Anaplastic Astrocytoma, a malignant brain tumor._

_Day by day, Kirsten saw her husband slowly fade away into only glimpses of what he once was. He slowly started to have a hard time functioning and the treatments were only slowing his death but not preventing it._

_For a year and a half now, the two only had each other and remained hidden from the rest of Orange County._

_  
Sandy later found out about Tom's shady dealings with the Newport Group—he turned into a CEO far worse than Caleb Nichol. He tried to get to Summer, but Tom had already known by then what Sandy was going to say, so he threatened Sandy and Kirsten. He threatened to put Kirsten in jail for investment fraud._

_  
It was not like Sandy Cohen to back down, but by then, he had discovered his illness._

_Sandy and Kirsten backed down and made a deal to fall off the face of the map, never to see Summer and Adam again._

_There was no reason for Sandy or Kirsten to fight. Seth was dead, Ryan was in jail and Summer seemed financially and emotionally well off. They wrote a letter to Summer under Tom's orders declaring that they lied to her and that they were still angry at her for marrying Tom and that it would be for the better that she and Adam not keep contact with them._

Summer watched Sandy playing golf from afar. 

_When Summer had received the letter, her first reaction was that of disbelief. It was never like Sandy and Kirsten to just run away. As the days passed though, Summer began to believe the letter. And then suddenly, all of her insecurities rose. The one family she believed would always be there for her and her son—their grandchild—left them. _

_She became enraged, never wanting to see them again._

_But then things changed…_

_Summer was no longer 16. She wasn't going to lose something without fighting for it, or at least she wasn't going to lose Sandy and Kirsten without her seeing their eyes and having them say what they wrote in the letter to her face. She owed it to her son. She owed it to Seth._

At that moment Summer was ready to step out of her car and face her fears. She didn't want to hear from them that they truly never wanted to see her again, yet she knew that she had to see them.

But before she could, something caught Summer's eye.

A man whom she knew by the name of Aidan Crowe started walking towards Sandy.

Seth had been watching from afar. All Seth had felt when he saw his father was an immense amount of pain. He knew that his father was dying, but what hurt him most was that his father didn't seem like it at all. In Seth's head, Sandy looked like his old self, as though there was a chance things were going to be normal one day. But it was all a false hope left from a once optimistic Seth Cohen.

Seth clinched the brown envelope full of money and a title to a trust fund.

He was afraid that Sandy might just see through his skin.

Nevertheless, he stepped out of his car and approached the porch without noticing Summer's car camouflaged with all the other cars in the neighborhood.

"Mr. Cohen?" Seth inquired in a deep voice.

"Call me Bert, I like it when I make strangers uncomfortable by making absurd requests like 'call me Bert'," Sandy teased.

Seth smiled, but he couldn't hold it in himself…he was desperate to just be able to hug his father. Seth had to make it quick. "Hi, I have a delivery for you, from a 'Cooper, Marissa'," Seth explained.

Sandy had a surprised look. _How would Marissa know where we were? He thought._

"I'm a friend of Marissa's. She wanted you to know that everyone is alright and that Tom doesn't know about this," Seth explained.

Sandy nodded. "…Thanks."

The two exchanged looks. There was a brief moment of suspense when Seth thought that Sandy had looked at him differently, but when Sandy started walking to his door, he knew that Sandy didn't suspect a thing.

* * *

**California State Prison – Corcoran**

Ryan pressed his face against the floor in solitary confinement. One of his methods of amusement was just lying there and visualizing that he was in an alternate world. He pictured himself living in a house that he built, still doing pro-bono work in law, but also doing some architecture on the side. He'd come home to Marissa. They'd live near Summer, Kirsten and Sandy. Seth would still be alive and they'd scheme monthly wife-free escapes to Las Vegas. No talks of outdated Dolce and Gabbana outfits. No debates on whether an outfit was going to be cute enough to the latest Newport Beach Charity event. Just plain old guy time.

Ryan smiled.

"A-781!" yelled a coarse voice that belonged to Tim Scott, a guard who was particularly hard on Ryan. In Corcoran, you weren't considered an individual, but a parasite on society, so you were never referred to by your name.

Ryan got up slowly.

Scott teasingly smiled at Ryan with his gold colored teeth. "Do you know what day today is?" He then yelled to the guard just a few feet away, "Lockdown on A-781 for disobedience!"

Ryan hadn't done anything wrong, yet Ryan had no fear in his eyes for the incoming beating. A part of the reason why Ryan remained fearless came from the rebellious strength that derived from his youth. A part of it was his belief that he would eventually have his chance at justice.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity of beatings, Ryan was left on the floor bruised and bleeding. His back was scarred—in fact, his entire body sported cuts and bruises. Ryan's face alone resembled a heavily bruised fruit. 

"Now I don't know who you know, or who'd give a damn," Scott said in an angry tone, "but your hardheaded ass will be out in a few days."

Ryan was in disbelief.

_An abundance of new evidence was given to a criminal justice class in UC Berkeley. The fervent students pounced on the opportunity, got Ryan's case file fast tracked and showed it to the judge who tried Ryan. All of the new compelling evidence overcame the previous circumstantial evidence and before Ryan knew it, he was free and the real culprit was arrested._

_It was four years in the making for Seth._

_

* * *

_

**Newport Beach, California**

A tall figure in a suit with an untied necktie hovered by the window carrying a glass with ice and whisky, looking out at the beach and the stars.

It was Seth.

He stood there, with only a small strip of moonlight lighting his arms while the rest of his body and face was in the dark.

It had been a long week, and today, he had gotten what he thought he desired for so long.

As he looked outside from his bedroom, he noticed that the ocean and sky seemed to mesh perfectly together—the same shade of black. They were two separate entities, but he loved that they seemed like they were one.

It was the one thing he took pleasure in now.

After all, he had nothing left.

* * *

He stood in a numbing silence. The only noise in the room came from the clashing of the ice with the glass he drank from.

* * *

"You came into my life and you changed my world," silently uttered a delicate, shaky voice. 

Seth looked up towards the door, where the noise came from.

It was Summer. She stood there with her eyeliner completely smudged. You knew that she'd been crying...and still was...

Seth stood in his place perfectly still.

"I'm going to ask you one more time," she said slowly. "Who--are--you?"

"You know the answer to that," Seth answered softly in a flat, indiscernible tone.

Summer began to speak faster in frustration, "My husband is in prison because of you."

"Your husband is in prison because that's where he belongs," replied Seth. "Now please, I've had one hell of a long day, if you could escort yourself out…" he continued in a similar unclear tone.

Summer began walking towards Seth, still shaking and still with tears slowly running down her face. She continued to speak, "This stranger comes into town with all this money and with all this charm. And in no time, I'm kissing him, and in turn, he's acquitted my dead husband's brother in exchange for my current husband, and then he's setting up trust funds and giving big brown envelopes filled with money to my dead husband's parents under the name of Marissa Cooper, a woman who's funds are more depleted than Sandy and Kirsten Cohen's."

Summer was now only a few feet from Seth, but she still couldn't see his facial reactions as he still remained in the dark.

More tears ran down her face. Summer began to speak softer, "Now the clincher here is that this _stranger_...has the same mannerisms as Seth...he...laughs like him, eats like him, smells like him, smiles like him, sounds like him…and…………...kisses like him." She stopped for a second and turned her head away. "I KNOW I'M GOING CRAZY, I KNOW. MAYBE THIS IS MY PUNISHMENT. YOU HAUNTING ME, YOU REMINDING ME OF SETH."

Seth clinched his right fist. He couldn't maintain his composure any longer. His stern self-control had collapsed. "You wouldn't want to be standing in front of your husband right now."

"I'd give anything—" Summer desperately replied with empty hope, knowing that she would never be able to.

"---How long after Seth's death did it take for you to marry Tom!" he angrily asked as all of his body moved into the moonlight, making him fully visible.

* * *

It was then that Summer covered her mouth with her trembling hand.

* * *

Seth looked at his reflection from the window. 

It was his own face. He was in shock. He backed away from the light instantaneously.

Charlie the angel must have done something to him.

* * *

Even though Seth's face was revealed in his true form, the two stood in their place. There was no instant reunion. There was no magical moment. And there certainly wasn't acceptance. 

Seth looked at the distraught Summer and uttered, "We might as well be strangers."

* * *

"We Might As Well Be Strangers" 

By Keane

I don't know your face no more,

Or feel the touch that I adore,

I don't know your face no more,

It's just a place I'm looking for.

We might as well be strangers in another town,

We might as well be living in a different world,

We might as well,

We might as well,

We might as well

I don't know your face these days,

We're strangers in an empty space,

I don't understand your heart,

It's easier to be apart…

…For all I know of you now


	13. I'm Not There

I'm Not There

Somewhere…

40-year-old Seth, with his tie loosened and his hair ruffled from a rather long journey, sat inside a waiting room—in what looked to be an old train station, filled with a variety of people…old and thin, young and fat, middle-aged and pretty, bros and hos…

Seth's countenance was simultaneously serene and somber. A thousand thoughts rushed through his brain, but he paid no heed to them and consented to continue their chaos in his brain. In fact, it was as if Seth was in a certain locked gaze that could have continued until eternity, had his name not been called out.

The best way to describe the man who called for Seth was that he astonishingly resembled Morgan Freeman. The two carried on their meeting inside the man's office.

This man, whose name was Jude, had the uncanny ability to instantaneously connect with anyone in the station. Of course this ability had its limitations and these limitations came in the form of Seth.

Jude knew this and decided to cut the obligatory small talk and opened and thick manila folder filled with legal-sized paper.

"You think that we'd go digital by now, right? I mean, if you think about it, we could have gone digital before the world went digital," Jude joked.

Seth smiled a little.

"I was never one for successfully delivering jokes, even I didn't get that one," Jude explained. "Anyway…you know why you're here, right?"

"The time's up."

Jude looked at the paperwork in front of him. "Well, it looks like it's been up twice." Jude poured himself some whiskey straight.

"I didn't know angels could drink."

Jude laughed. "Well, first off, I'm not an angel. Or better yet, I'm an angel in one language, an enlightened monk in others." He began pouring Seth a glass. "I think a TV show on Showtime once described me as 'undead'." Seth took a drink of the whiskey. "You're not doing too well, are you kid? Would you rather not be here?"

Seth shook his head. "It's not about not wanting to be here. It's about not being there."

Jude nodded in agreement. "I can't…I'm sorry…"

Seth nodded back, "I know."

"You know, even God can't do anything about it. It's why we beat ourselves up every day about our jobs. If we could let people go on living forever, we would, you know?" Jude tried to connect with Seth.

"Pardon the French, but that's bullshit. How did I get a second chance? I mean I get the whole 'I had unfinished business to take care of' deal, but why couldn't I stay?" Seth questioned frustratingly.

"I want you to think of people's lives like a complex math equation. In the end, there's always a solution and sometimes those solutions mean long and miserable lives or short and happy ones. Somewhere in your equation and sometimes in others…a mistake is made…things don't add up…and we send you back to fix it. Once it's fixed, the equation works like anyone else's and your time ends just like everyone else."

Seth stood up in frustration. "What is this place?"

"To put it simply, we're the interstitial to your final destination…a pit stop."

"Why do I need a pit stop?"

"Because two things need to happen to people before they get to their final destination. The first is to come to terms. The second is to find your happiest memory."

Seth, who had been pacing around the room, suddenly stopped. "Why?"

Jude leaned back. "Well, to put it simply, the final destination involves you getting to live in your happiest memory forever."

"That's heaven?"

"If you'd like to call it that."

"How long do I have to figure it out?"

"Until whenever."

"What if I don't know what that is?"

Jude smiled. "Everyone figures it out eventually. Some people are in this station for five minutes, while others are in here for five years…but that's what I'm here for."

"So you're my post-life psychologist?"

"I guess."

"How many of these are there?"

"Thousands."

"And you've never had a person not have a favorite memory?" Seth inquired.

"Never."

Seth sat back down and thought back to what had happened years ago, when he was revealed to Summer…


End file.
